Month: November 2018

Former Dallas Cowboys offensive lineman Blaine Nye once said, “It’s not whether you win or lose, but who gets the blame.”

Of course, there’s a lot more talk about blame when a team is losing, and the Jacksonville Jaguars find themselves in that situation after seven consecutive losses that dropped them to a 3-8 record a year after they were in the AFC title game in New England.

It’s time for the Jaguars to play the Blame Game. So who gets the blame?

Coach Doug Marrone has been quick to put it on himself, but he seemed to point a finger at offensive coordinator Nathan Hackett when he fired Hackett on Monday.

Marrone then benched five-year quarterback Blake Bortles and handed Cody Kessler the starting job.

Continue reading “Only thing left for woebegone Jaguars is placing the blame”

A quick look back at Week 12 of the NFL season:

1. There was some hand-wringing when the New England Patriots were blown out by the Tennessee Titans before their bye week, but it turned out there’s nothing wrong with the Patriots that can’t be fixed by playing division games. They beat the New York Jets, 27-13, as Tom Brady threw for two touchdowns. Brady said part of his recent problems may have been that he was not being aggressive enough and trying to avoid mistakes. He may have fixed the problem against the Jets. Combined with the Pittsburgh Steelers’ loss to Denver, it put the Patriots in position to be the AFC’s second seed. And they can be the top seed if they win out and Kansas City loses a game. After hosting Minnesota on Sunday, the Patriots have three division games left along with one against Pittsburgh, a team they usually dominate. They once again appear to be well-positioned for a playoff run.

2. When the Cincinnati Bengals rehired Hue Jackson as an assistant coach following his firing by the Cleveland Browns, there was some thought he might give them some insight when they played the Browns last Sunday. Instead, Baker Mayfield threw four touchdown passes as the Browns jumped to a 28-0 lead and won, 35-20. Mayfield didn’t exactly give Jackson a warm welcome after the game. Mayfield said he wasn’t happy Jackson signed on with a division rival. On top of that, the Bengals lost quarterback Andy Dalton for the season. The Bengals’ season is unraveling.

3. Philip Rivers completed 25 consecutive passes, the most by a quarterback in a single game, as the Los Angeles Chargers routed Arizona, 45-10. He finished completing 28 of 29 passes for a record 96.6 completion rate. He could have taken a sack on his one incompletion and had a perfect day. It was the second straight week he should have taken a sack. He threw the ball away to avoid one with two minutes left last week against Denver. That stopped the clock gave the Broncos time to mount a game-winning drive.

4. Rookie quarterback Lamar Jackson boosted his record to 2-0 by passing for 178 yards and rushing for 71 in a 34-17 Baltimore Ravens victory over Oakland. OK, it was against the Raiders, but still a nice start. He has rushed for 190 yards in his first two starts, the most for a quarterback in the Super Bowl era. Matthew Judon was a defensive standout for the Ravens as he had the rare feat of getting a sack on three consecutive defensive plays. On the first one, he got strip that Terrell Suggs returned for a touchdown. At 36, he was the second oldest player to have a fumble return for a touchdown of at least 40 yards. Sam Mills did it for Carolina in 1996 at age 37.

5. For the second consecutive week, Ben Roethlisberger had the Steelers near the goal line at the end of the game. He plunged in for a touchdown to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars a week ago, but he threw an interception against Denver to end the team’s bid to force the game into overtime as they lost 24-17. Their six-game winning streak came to an end. The Steelers had 527 yards of offense, but were stymied by two Roethlisberger interceptions and two completions that resulted in lost fumbles. And means the Steelers are now a half-game behind the Patriots in their bid for the second seed.

Five quick takes on NFL Week 12:

1. Three of the four teams playing in prime time on Sunday and Monday nights are fighting to stay alive in the playoff hunt. In the Sunday night game, Green Bay at 4-5-1 is at 5-4-1 Minnesota. The first game ended in a 29-29 tie in Green Bay, but Minnesota will have the home field edge this time. On Monday night, in a division game, the 5-5 Tennessee Titans play at 7-3 Houston, which hopes to remain in control of division. The Titans won the first game 20-17 so they will have the tiebreaker if they sweep the series and would be only a game behind the Texans. This game also took on an emotional feel for the Texans after their founder, Bob McNair, died Friday. The team would like to win the game for McNair.

Continue reading “A quick look at NFL Weekend 12”

Nathanial Hackett may have the toughest job in the NFL.

He’s the offensive coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars, a team whose offense has all the explosiveness of a Model T.

So when the Jaguars have the lead in the second half, he tends to call running plays rather than risk having Blake Bortles throw because the offensive line isn’t protecting him well and the receivers are noted for dropping passes.

And Bortles is noted for turning it over. He leads the league in interceptions and turnovers since he entered the NFL in 2014 as a first-round pick.

What they hope for is that even the Jaguars have to punt with the lead, their defense can hold that lead.

Continue reading “Jaguars play-caller Hackett needs to take the shackles off”

The table is set for the New England Patriots.

This is their time of year. They are 105-29 after Thanksgiving since 2001.

And if they win out and Kansas City loses one more game, the Patriots will have their usual No. 1 seed in the AFC, and the road to the Super Bowl will once again go through Foxborough, Mass.

And the schedule is favorable with four games against division opponents, including games against the hapless New York Jets on Sunday and in the final game of the season.

The other two challenges are a home game against Minnesota and a trip to Pittsburgh, a team they usually dominate.

Continue reading “Season’s finishing stretch should tell a lot about Brady and Patriots”

Looking back at Week 11 of the NFL season:

1. The Los Angeles Rams-Kansas City Chiefs game lived up to its hype as it turned into a wild shootout won by the Rams, 54-51. It was the first NFL game in which both teams scored over 50 points. Although it was hailed as a look at the NFL going forward and even though all the rules now favor the passing game, it doesn’t mean this a formula for the future. The teams combined for 95 passes, which led to mistakes and turnovers and gave it the feel of a 7-on-7 passing drill. Kareem Hunt of the Chiefs had just 14 carries and Todd Gurley of the Rams just 12. It remains to be seen if abandoning the run like that will become popular in the league.

Continue reading “A quick look back at NFL Week 11”

Where have you gone, Shad Khan? The Jacksonville Jaguars turn their losing eyes to you.

With apologies to Simon & Garfunkel, that’s where the Jaguars stand now since their season has skidded out of control.

With the collapse to 3-7 after six consecutive losses, the focus turns to their owner and what Khan will do at the end of the season. He rarely gives interviews, so he is not likely to tip his hand.

The Jaguars need fixing, and the question is whether Khan will make the right moves to fix the franchise.

He has to take the responsibility for the fact the team has had one winning season since he took control in 2012. It all starts with the owner.

Continue reading “IN DEPTH: Khan is under the microscope as his Jaguars crumble”

Five quick takes on Week 11 in the NFL:

1. In the biggest game of the regular season, the league’s two 9-1 teams — the Los Angeles Rams and the Kansas City Chiefs – will meet at the Coliseum in Los Angeles. The game was moved from Mexico City because of the poor field conditions of the field there. This will be the biggest Monday night game since the series was shifted from ABC to ESPN. Each team has a young franchise quarterback (Jared Goff of the Rams and Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs) and a dynamic running back (Todd Gurley of the Rams and Kareem Hunt of the Chiefs). The Rams are slightly favored, but they don’t get a big homefield advantage because the game was moved to LA. It moved the line by only a point because the Los Angeles support for the Rams has been lukewarm and there are likely to be a lot Chiefs fans at the game. This is the fifth game since 1970 to match two teams with one or fewer losses in the 11th week of the season. The Chiefs played in the last one in 2013 when they were 9-0 and Denver was 8-1. The Broncos won that one and went on to make the Super Bowl but were routed by the Seattle Seahawks.

Continue reading “A quick look ahead at NFL Week 11”

When John Riggins sat out the 1980 season in a contract dispute with the Washington Redskins, there was no salary cap, no franchise tag, no social media, no Internet and no NFL Network. ESPN was just in its second year of existence.

Not surprisingly, the Riggins holdout got little attention compared to Le’Veon Bell’s decision to sit out the 2018 season and probably become a free agent next year.

Bell’s circumstances, though, are different. Riggins was under contract at $300,000 for the 1980 season and wanted to renegotiate it during training camp.

O.J. Simpson, who was the highest-paid player in the league, was making more than twice as much at the end of his career.

When Riggins left camp, the Redskins placed him on the left camp-retired list, making him ineligible to play that season.

Continue reading “Contract saga still figures to end well for Bell, at least in the wallet”

It’s a well-documented fact that the Bill Belichick coaching tree is more like a twig.

Former Belichick assistants tend to struggle as NFL head coaches.

To start with, they don’t have the advantage of having Tom Brady, and they also are too steeped in the self-proclaimed “Patriot Way,” which doesn’t work too well without Brady.

The latest example is Matt Patricia, the guy who was noted in New England for his beard and red pullover.

Patricia was hired by the Detroit Lions to take the team to the next step after they went 9-7 the past two years under Jim Caldwell, who was fired at the end of last season.

Continue reading “Patricia is yet another Belichick NFL coaching-tree debacle”